Satellite Broadband Fair Use Policy

Satellite based networks have capacity limits, and all customers can suffer from degraded or denied service when one user (or a small group of users) consumes a disproportionate amount of a network’s resources. Tooway, therefore, will monitor both overall network performance and individual resource consumption to determine if any user is consuming a disproportionate amount of available resources and creating the potential to disrupt or degrade the Tooway network or network usage by others. This process of monitoring both overall network performance and individual resource consumption is consistent with the description of the nature of the Service.

Tooway reserves the right to engage in reasonable network management to protect the overall network, including analysing traffic patterns and preventing the distribution of viruses or other malicious code. During periods of congestion, Tooway uses various network management techniques, such as reducing the data rate of individual bandwidth intensive users whose use is negatively impacting other users. This temporarily limits the amount of bandwidth available to the bandwidth intensive Service Accounts until the congestion has diminished, at which point Tooway will endeavour to lift any limits it may have imposed on bandwidth intensive users during the period of congestion.

Tooway may also consider historical usage patterns when temporarily reducing the data rate of bandwidth intensive Service Accounts during periods of congestion. In these eventualities, the necessary traffic policy will be applied using best technical efforts in order to safeguard the integrity of the network.

Tooway reserves the right to immediately restrict, suspend or terminate Service to an abuser without further notice in order to protect the network and minimize congestion abused by the excessive use. While the determination of what constitutes excessive use depends on the specific state of the network at any given time, excessive use is determined by resource consumption relative to that of a typical individual Subscription of the same Service Class and notby the use of any particular application.

If, as a consequence of any special offer expressly qualified as such by Tooway, the Client purchases Subscriptions of a Service Class that does impose higher limits on the amount of data the Service Account may download or upload during a month (or other applicable service period), the Client represents that he’s aware that such promotional plans are nevertheless subject to the provisions of this section. What this means is that all of the provisions described in this section, including those that describe how Tooway may perform reasonable network management such as the data rate of bandwidth intensive users during periods of congestion, will apply to the use of the Service.

In case of use of the term “unlimited” the term “unlimited” does not mean that Tooway will not take steps to reduce the data rate during periods of congestion or take other actions described in this section when a Service Account’s usage is negatively impacting the Internet experience of other subscribers to the Tooway Service.

The generic rules are as follows:

For Tooway 10 & 20 packages; customers using more than 5GB of their monthly data allowance during Peak Hours (4pm to 10pm UTC weekdays and weekends) in any single week will be classified as a high data user and bandwidth will be temporarily restricted to regulate the service.

For Tooway 30 & 50 packages; customers using more than 20% of their monthly data allowance during Peak Hours in any single week will be classified as a high data user and bandwidth will be temporarily restricted to regulate the service.

For Absolute Tooway customers (unlimited package): an upper limit has been applied for Peak Hours, depending on the congestion levels in the network. Typically, the Fair Usage Policy will affect the top 10% of data users subscribing to this package, based on their monthly and/or weekly usage and currently equates to customers using over 60GB of data per month.

Network usage is monitored daily and the past 7 days activity is taken into account. Customers who decrease their data usage or schedule intensive data downloads or exchange to off peak hours will see their regular bandwidth speeds reinstated.

We understand these measures are constraining for some users but they allow us to maintain affordable and sustainable broadband access for everyone.

Monitor your own satellite broadband connection:

From your own satellite broadband connection at any time, you can monitor your usage at: http://www.toowayhome.com/ (you will need to enter your Tooway Site ID (Beginning BWKA) shown on your welcome letter). This site will clearly state your monthly limit and your usage to date.